Colossus: The race to build the world’s most powerful machine in Memphis
Ben Walker, a partner at Memphis venture-capital firm Ridgeline Partners, said xAI’s arrival in Memphis puts the city at the forefront of a great global game, albeit one with an uncertain outcome. (Photo illustration by Kelsey Bowen/The Daily Memphian)
Under a warm late-February sun, contractors felled row after row of thin pines along the Tennessee-Mississippi border.
The public did not yet know what the empty warehouse sitting behind those pines was about to become. The proximity of a natural gas plant sitting just a few hundred yards away offered a clue. For months, Elon Musk’s xAI had zeroed in on these million square feet at 5420 Tulane Road for the next phase of its buildout in Memphis.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on the intersection of government, public policy, influence and how public dollars are spent.
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